Politics & Government

Esty: No Gun Vote on Newtown Shootings Anniversary is 'Cowardice'

In Washington D.C. Connecticut's congressional delegation, including Farmington's representative, joined the victims' families in their continued push for gun control reform.

On the six-month anniversary of the Newtown shootings, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5, and the rest of the Connecticut delegation were on the floor of the House of Representatives promising that the push for gun control, along with the memory of Sandy Hook victims, had not gone away.

Neither had their families – some of them present Thursday with Esty – or the need for “commonsense” gun control measures, she said.

To an unimaginable tragedy “…Sandy Hook families, who despite living with pain that most can only begin to imagine, have responded to loss not with anger or hate, but with unbelievable love, strength, and courage,” said Esty, who has been handing out pictures of the Newtown victims while lobbying her colleagues.

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But, she said, those families, have faced not only their own pain but also “cowardice” that has stopped proposed gun control measures from even coming to a vote.

“[I]t is shameful that we have not yet had a chance to vote.

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And, yet, in the face of obstruction and misinformation, these families and this community have refused to give up…” she went on.

The press conference was filled with vows to persevere until comprehensive gun control measures had been passed.

Blumenthal called the cause “unstoppable,” according to a Courant report. While Murphy promised, “We are never going to give up." 

The families have shown no cowardice, relentlessly speaking about the massacre and forcing congressmen to hear about its victims.

“My sister died a hero. She died protecting her students,” Carlee Soto told MSNBC.com. “Until we see change come upon us, we’re not going anywhere.”

A group of families and the Newtown Action Alliance read the names of the 26 victims again Thursday, according to The Day, on yet another trip to DC, hoping to win over wary congressmen, many of whom refuse to meet with them.

Among them U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who said that a strong bill requiring background checks – what the Newtown families have pushed hardest for – will inevitably be passed, The Day said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., who co-authored the House version of the background checks bill that was defeated in the Senate two months ago, and Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., who was shot along with former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011 also joined the Connecticut delegation and Newtown families.


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